


Unintended

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: M/M, i rated this mature to be on the safe side, the soulmate au that someone actually did ask for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:58:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caelan has given up on finding his soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unintended

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because these two are my trash ship and I missed them, and my bro shadedforests also missed them. 
> 
> It's a soulmate AU wherein basically if you have a soulmate, you have the first sentence you hear your soulmate say written on your arm. What Caelan hears Fletcher say is directly from Mortal Coil. 
> 
> (Forgive me for I have sinned.)
> 
> Warnings: There's implied sex toward the end, plus the general unhealthiness that just comes with Caelan being attracted to someone. (Seriously, Caelan is a NOT a model boyfriend.)
> 
> The working title for this was Mortal Trash.

Caelan is sure that Valkyrie is the love of his life. He doesn’t care that she didn’t speak the words written on his skin, forever etched into his forearm. No one has ever said them to him, not verbatim. Besides, if the rumors are to be believed, vampires don’t have souls, let alone soul _ mates _ . They’re rare enough among regular sorcerers. Nonexistent among mortals. 

Back when he was a (human) child, Caelan used to wonder about his soulmate, what she’d be like. His parents, they were soulmates. They promised him that one day he’d find his, but Caelan didn’t blame them for being wrong. They were wrong about plenty of other things, too. 

When he was young and foolish, he thought that Anna was his soulmate. She didn’t say those words on his arm exactly (not all of those words existed back then - Caelan remembers that his mother found that odd), but she said something similar enough that he hoped. And even when she revealed her own forearm, unmarred with that haunting, dark script, he still hoped. 

It was not to be. Caelan understands that now, painfully. He has accepted it. Valkyrie makes him happy. Valkyrie can be his soulmate, though he knows she has no writing on her arms, and her first words to him were nothing like those that have been plaguing him since he first learned to read. Caelan is not bound by anything but his own monstrosity these days, and although vampirism is a steep price to pay, he derives some joy from not being a slave to all other aspects of nature. 

For example, he does not have to sit back and watch Valkyrie get hurt because her so-called boyfriend (emphasis on the  _ boy  _ part - like that child knows anything about true love) is dumb enough to get possessed. If that Renn boy truly loved Valkyrie like Caelan does, he would be able to stop the monster that crawled inside of him, just like Caelan has. 

Caelan doesn’t have much time to overanalyze the differences between himself and this boy, however. He’s hurting Valkyrie, Caelan is positive, and he sprints down the hall of this unfamiliar cinema-turned-hospital-turned-battleground. Sure enough, Caelan can smell Valkyrie’s blood -  _ good, yes, eat, bite, bite, bite  _ \- and though it smells absolutely intoxicating, he forces himself to focus. He rounds a corner, and he can hear voices, and then it happens.

_ “... that’s nothing compared to the fun we’re going to have. _ ” Caelan pauses. He yanks back the sleeve of his shirt and sees those exact words glaring up at him from his forearm.  _ Fuck _ . What does that mean? Is… the  _ boy _ his  _ soulmate _ ? Or is it the monster possessing him? Caelan doesn’t have time to mull it over, however. Valkyrie is still important. He still has to save her. That hasn’t changed. 

Caelan lunges at the boy. 

***

When it’s done, when all the slices of darkness have been captured and contained, Caelan allows himself to think about what the boy said. Those words. Those words Caelan thought he’d never hear anyone say. He fears that if he goes to the boy, he’ll find that he has no soulmate (that would explain why he’s dating Valkyrie), and that Caelan’s true soulmate is locked away, nothing but a twisted, broken soul. It’s what Caelan deserves, he knows, but if he finds out this truly is the case, he also knows he’ll stop at nothing to retrieve this… this Remnant.

Caelan said nothing to the boy when they were fighting because he didn’t want to know. He still doesn’t exactly want to know. He just has to. He starts following the boy (perhaps he should start referring to him by his name, since it’s possible they’re soulmates). He starts following  _ Fletcher  _ instead of Valkyrie. He learns that it is not easy to track a Teleporter, but he manages. There is some reason to Fletcher’s seemingly random patterns, and for the most part, he stays in the country. 

Caelan catches Fletcher alone one night. Infuriatingly, Fletcher does not spend much time outside - rather he teleports from building to building. But tonight Valkyrie said something that hurt him (and for the first time, Caelan feels a flash of annoyance toward her), and now he’s outside her window looking rather sour. He’s sitting on the ground, leaning against the house. 

Caelan speaks to him before he has a chance to consider his words carefully: “She doesn’t care about you, but I could.” He’s not sure why he opened his mouth. All it accomplishes is starling Fletcher, and for a moment, Caelan thinks he’s going to teleport away. 

“Who’s there?” Fletcher asks. He can’t see Caelan. Humans aren’t built to see at night, but vampires are, even when the monster is safely caged by the serum. Fletcher stands up and looks around fruitlessly.

Caelan steps close enough so that Fletcher can see him in the dim light coming off of Valkyrie’s house. “I am,” he says, perhaps a bit obviously.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Caelan.”

“You’re a vampire.”

“Yes.”

The conversation lulls here. Caelan gets the impression that Fletcher expects him to rip off his skin and attack him any second now, but he doesn’t teleport. “What was it that you said when you were lurking?” Fletcher asks eventually, when he decides Caelan isn’t a threat. 

“I said that Valkyrie doesn’t care about you. She doesn’t care about much. Aside from Skulduggery Pleasant.”

“I know,” Fletcher says quietly. If Caelan were still human, he wouldn’t have been able to hear it. “But that’s… not exactly what you said,” he adds, louder. 

“Why does my wording matter to you?” Caelan asks. This is the real test. 

Fletcher hesitates, but ultimately says, “I guess it doesn’t.”

Caelan crosses the distance between them before Fletcher can blink, before he understands what’s happening,  _ before he can get away _ . Caelan pins Fletcher against the house with his arm. He braces it just under Fletcher’s collarbone, and then with his free hand he wrenches Fletcher’s arm and shoves back the sleeve. Fletcher gasps, and Caelan realizes belatedly that he probably should have been a bit gentler, especially since Fletcher could be his soulmate. Which reminds him… 

Caelan looks Fletcher’s forearm and finds it bare.  _ Fuck _ .  _ Fuck, fuck, fuck. _ He drops Fletcher’s arm and throws a punch at the wall, dangerously close to Fletcher’s head. Not that it matter what happens to Fletcher now, though, does it, he thinks bitterly. 

Fletcher makes a panicky little noise, but he manages to say, “It’s on the other arm.” Caelan pauses, wondering if he heard correctly. Fletcher sounds hoarse, and Caelan loosens the amount of pressure he’s using to keep Fletcher pinned. 

Caelan gingerly lifts Fletcher’s other arm - his right one, Caelan’s words are on his own left arm, so he assumed, but he assumed wrong - and pulls back the sleeve. And there it is, the color of the night itself against Fletcher’s pale skin.  _ She doesn’t care about you, but I could _ . Caelan’s words, exactly. 

Caelan moves his arm, but he holds Fletcher by the wrist because the poor boy looks terrified, and Caelan doesn’t want him to leave yet. Doesn’t want him to leave ever. Caelan has been waiting for him for a long time, and he isn’t about to mess it all up now. 

“Did I hurt you?” Caelan asks. Fletcher grunts.

“Yeah, you slammed me against a wall.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you? Would you have hurt me if I wasn’t who you hoped I was?” Fletcher challenges. Behind his fear, there’s anger shining in his eyes. 

Caelan realizes just how badly he fucked this up. 

“No,” Caelan says, although he isn’t sure this is true. He wouldn’t have meant to, but then, he’d hurt a lot of people he hadn’t meant to before. 

Fletcher huffs out a breath of air. “What does your arm say? ‘Who’s there?’ Surely someone’s said that to you before?”

“It’s not what you said to me. It’s the first thing I heard you say,” Caelan tells him. “You said it while you were possessed, so I thought perhaps it was the Remnant, not you… but. Your arm tells a different story.”

Fletcher flushes. He’s obviously ashamed of what he did will under the influence of that fractured shard of a soul. He didn’t kill anyone, however, so Caelan is confident he’ll get over it eventually. 

“I have a girlfriend, you know.”

“I’m aware. She is cheating on you with me.” Fletcher sucks in a sharp breath. He looks like he doesn’t want to believe Caelan, but Caelan thinks he knows that it’s true. 

“Of course she is,” he says eventually, shakily. “I suppose that means she can’t get angry if  _ I  _ cheat on  _ her _ with you.”

Caelan is about to tell him that he should break up with her, but Fletcher kisses him before he can say anything. Caelan has been known to be a exaggerated romantic at times, but this angry, fierce, sloppy kiss is the best he’s ever receive, and he knows it’s because it’s the first one from his soulmate.  _ His  _ soulmate.

Caelan kisses him back with fervor, and Fletcher ends up with his back against the wall again. 

***

Caelan decides he likes Fletcher’s ability to teleport. It was vexing when Caelan was trying to follow him, but when they were making out against Valkyrie Cain’s house and suddenly appeared in a luxurious hotel suite, it grew on Caelan. 

Fletcher is asleep now, tired from the activities they engaged in upon their arrival in said hotel. Nothing tires Caelan, but Fletcher is still only human. Besides, Caelan likes the thought of his soulmate sleeping next to him. It seems very normal… and very right. 

Caelan watches him sleep. He snores. There are some bruises forming near his neck, and Caelan frowns at them. Perhaps he was too rough. He makes a note to apologize in the morning. Fletcher’s hair, which was typically spiked immaculately, is now a completely mess, drooping in some places and sticking up in others. Some random tuffs did neither, springing away from his head in their own bizarre way. 

A shrill ringing interrupts his thoughts, and his eyes dart around the lush, expansive room. Their clothes are scattered everywhere, and Caelan pinpoints the sound amongst them. It’s Fletcher’s cell phone, which is tucked in the pocket of his trousers. 

Fletcher groans in his sleep, and Caelan darts across the room to grab the phone before it wakes him up. The screen proclaims that it’s Valkyrie Cain calling, and so Caelan answers it. 

_ “Fletcher? Hey, we need to talk. I’m sorry about what happened tonight - I shouldn’t have said that.” _

Caelan tries not to growl. She never deserved Fletcher. And all she is now is the person who was in their way. Caelan can’t remember why he was so fond of her.

_ “Fletcher? Hello? Are you there?” _

“Hello, Valkyrie,” he says, as civilly as possible. “We really do need to talk…”

 

**Author's Note:**

> ...I wish I was sorry, but I'm not.


End file.
